Social Behaviour

Social Behaviour

• Social behaviour is a necessary part of human life, and being social means much more than merely being in the company of others.
• Social psychology deals with all behaviour that takes place in the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others.
• Social environment influences our thoughts, emotions and behaviour in complex ways.
• Various forms of social-cognitive processes:

1. Attitudes

Because of social influences, people form views, or attitudes about people, and about different issues in life, that exist in the form of behavioural tendencies.

2. Impression Formation

When we meet people, we make inferences about their personal qualities. This is   called impression formation.

3. Attribution

We are interested in why people behave in the ways they do — that is, we assign causes to the behaviour shown in specific social situations. This process is called attribution.

Very often, impression formation and attributions are influenced by attitudes.

These three processes are examples of mental activities related to the gathering and interpretation of information about the social world, collectively called social cognition.

Social cognition is activated by cognitive units called schemas.

• Cognitive processes cannot be directly seen; they have to be inferred on the basis of externally shown behaviour.
• Thus, following are the examples of social influence that are in the form of observable behaviour:

1. Social facilitation/ inhibition

the improvement/decline in performance in the presence of others

2. Pro-social behaviour/helping

responding to others who are in need or distress

• Social context influences on the individual is determined by both social-cognitive processes and social behaviour.
• Through systematic and objective observations, and by adopting scientific methods, it is possible to establish logical cause-and-effect relationships that explain social behaviour.